Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This cast plaque was originally fitted at the left with a pin that attached it to a buckle, and at the right with a loop that secured it to a belt. The fitting preserves two hinges at the left side; portions of pins are still lodged within the hinges. Only a stub of the loop is preserved at the upper right corner (1).
The scene is schematically but legibly rendered. In the center stands a figure in a chariot pulled by horned quadrupeds, most likely bulls. The charioteer is positioned frontally; the bulls turn their bodies outward in opposite directions but twist their heads toward the center. The figure has chin-length hair, is clothed in a robe, and holds a rein in each raised hand. A plain, linear border frames the vignette. The charioteer lacks any identifying attributes and seems to represent a generic figure. The reverse of the plaque is undecorated.
Fittings of similar format have been found throughout the eastern Mediterranean as well as in Hungary and Bulgaria. This type of buckle was in use throughout the early and middle Byzantine periods (2). Several close comparanda for the format and iconography of the Harvard plaque come from eastern Mediterranean sites, including Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey) and Colophon, and are dated to the seventh century CE (3). The former owner of the Harvard belt fitting, Oscar Van Lennep, was from a family of Dutch traders and consuls who settled in Smyrna in the early eighteenth century CE, and the original publication for the belt plate indicates that he acquired it in nearby Colophon (4).
NOTES:
1. For more fully intact examples of this type of belt buckle, see D. Csallány, “Les monuments de l’industrie byzantine des métaux I,” Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 2 (1954): 311-48, esp. 321 and 323, pls. 4.6, 4.8, and 5.1 [in Russian with French summary]; and J. Werner, “Byzantinische Gürtelschnallen des 6. und 7. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung Diergardt,” Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte 1 (1955): 36-48, nos. 5 and 7, pl. 7B.
2. Contra the previous publications of the Harvard piece, which incorrectly date it to the seventh century BCE or Archaic period. On buckles of this style and their findspots, see Werner 1955 (supra 1) 41-43. For early and middle Byzantine buckles of this format but with different style and iconography, see G. R. Davidson, Corinth 12: Minor Objects (Princeton, 1952) 268-69 and 273, nos. 2213-15, pl. 115; Csallány 1954 (supra 1) 321 and 323, pls. 4.2-6 and 5.1-8; Werner 1955 (supra 1) nos. 1-6, pl. 7A; and nos. 2, 3, and 7, pl. 7B; L. Wamser and G. Zahlhaas, Rom und Byzanz: Archäologische Kostbarkeiten aus Bayern (Munich, 1998) 232 and 234, nos. 359-60; D. Evgenidou and J. Albani, eds., Byzantium: An Oecumenical Empire, exh. cat., Byzantine and Christian Museum (Athens, 2002) 101, no. 80; J. Fleischer, O. Hjort, and M. Bogh Rasmussen, eds., Byzantium. Late Antique and Byzantine Art in Scandinavian Collections, exh. cat., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, 1996) 101, no. 80; and D. Papanikola-Bakirtzē, Kathēmerinē zōē sto Vyzantio [Everyday Life in Byzantium], exh. cat., Museum of Byzantine Culture (Athens, 2002) 393-95, nos. 482-85 [in Greek].
3. See Ashmoleon Museum, inv. no. 1886.685, from Smyrna (unpublished); Werner 1955 (supra 1) no. 1, pl. 7B; and Wamser and Zahlhaas 1998 (supra 2) 232 and 234, fig. 361. The theme of the charioteer is also found in buckles of similar format but slightly different iconography; see Werner 1955 (supra 1) no. 5, pl. 7B; and Csallány 1954 (supra 1) 321, pl. 4.7-8.
4. See C. Picard, “La Potnia Tauron de Colophon,” in Mélange Holleaux: Recueil de mémoires concernant l’antiquité grecque offert à Maurice Holleaux (Paris, 1913) 175-200, esp. 175-76.
Alicia Walker
